Michael Morse (38) high fives Gregor Blanco (7) after the game on Sunday. The San Francisco Giants played the Miami Marlins at AT&T Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, May 18, 2014. The Giants won 4-1. less

Michael Morse (38) high fives Gregor Blanco (7) after the game on Sunday. The San Francisco Giants played the Miami Marlins at AT&T Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, May 18, 2014. The Giants won ... more

Michael Morse (28) runs back to field first base during the Giants game against the Marlins on Sunday. The San Francisco Giants played the Miami Marlins at AT&T Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, May 18, 2014. The Giants won 4-1. less

Michael Morse (28) runs back to field first base during the Giants game against the Marlins on Sunday. The San Francisco Giants played the Miami Marlins at AT&T Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, May ... more

Long before he started riding his scooter to the ballpark, bought a "Gladiator" helmet for teammate Hunter Pence and pumped fresh life into the Giants by smacking colossal home runs, Michael Morse loved to simply play catch - with his mom.

Morse's dad abandoned the family soon after Michael was born in 1982. So Arlene Morse, a sprinter and tennis player growing up in Jamaica, happily joined countless Florida dads on the T-ball field.

Only it didn't end there. At age 9 or 10, Morse routinely spent weekend afternoons at a local park with Arlene, his older brother, T.K., and their stepdad, Stan Crisson. Crisson pitched and the boys took turns hitting while Arlene swiftly and gracefully chased down flyballs in the outfield.

This included hold-nothing-back games of catch during Morse's years at Nova High in Davie, Fla. Arlene Morse said the habit stretched into her son's time in the minor leagues, when he returned home in the winter and wanted to keep his arm strong.

She was always ready.

"He threw so hard, my hand would burn," Arlene said.

Morse's bond with his mom covered the absence of a relationship with his biological father. Arlene and John Morse divorced when Michael was 9 months old, and John essentially disappeared from his kids' lives. He was an alcoholic, according to T.K., and died of cancer about 10 years ago in his mid-50s.

Morse's dad made one awkward attempt to meet Michael, after one of his high school baseball games. John Morse arrived unannounced (the dad had done the same thing after one of T.K.'s football games four years earlier), and approached him after he hit two homers in front of a crowd filled with pro scouts.

His greeting - "I'm your father" - understandably stunned 18-year-old Michael. His response, later expressed to T.K., was to point toward Crisson in the crowd and say, "No, you're not. That guy sitting next to my mom, he's my father."

All these years later, Morse turned pensive as he reflected on the brief encounter.

"I had no clue who the guy was," he said. "It was a weird experience."

The next time Michael saw his biological dad, John Morse was in a casket in Ohio. The family learned of his death through an anonymous phone call, and Michael felt a strange desire to attend the funeral. Crisson accompanied both Morse brothers, then in their 20s, to pay their respects.

Giants fans mostly see Morse take command of the batter's box, an imposing presence at 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds. They enjoy watching him supply much-needed power with 10 home runs this season, including four to the opposite field.

They might not know his long and winding path to San Francisco, even before his previous major-league stops in Seattle, Washington, Seattle again and Baltimore.

Morse was born in Fort Lauderdale, but Arlene - suddenly on her own after the divorce - decided she couldn't handle two young boys while studying to become a medical assistant. She sent Michael to live with her parents in Jamaica; T.K. also spent summers there.

"It was horrible," Arlene said of their separation, "but I had to do it."

Michael stayed in Jamaica until he was 5 (he has a Jamaican flag tattooed on his ankle). By that time, Arlene had started her career - she has worked in the same cardiologist's office since 1984 - and was more equipped for the abundant challenges of raising two sons.

She quickly learned Michael was not a big fan of school. He hated it, actually. He reluctantly did his homework, then found direction and purpose in the many sports activities Arlene arranged.

"She didn't make a lot of money, but she made sure we played all the sports," Morse said. "The older I got, the more I had respect for her. It gave me the drive to make it to where I am today."

Crisson helped, too. He was a baseball and football player at Duke who also spent two years as a tight end in the Canadian Football League. Crisson caught 28 passes in 1965, helping the Hamilton Tiger Cats win the Grey Cup.

He later spent six years as an assistant football coach at his alma mater, before moving to Florida and becoming a furniture manufacturer's representative. He also met Arlene Morse.

Crisson's presence made a huge impact on the lives of T.K. and Michael. He not only provided the father figure they lacked, but he also offered the feedback they needed as aspiring athletes.

Honest feedback.

"Stan gave us the tough love," T.K. said. "Nothing was sugarcoated. If we sucked that day, he told us we sucked."

Crisson had plenty of opportunities for this analysis during Michael's junior year at Nova High in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Davie. The school had fielded a strong football team in previous years, some with T.K. at quarterback.

T.K. had ample help, including 12 teammates who later played for Division I schools. By the time Michael replaced his brother at quarterback, the talent level had dropped steeply - to the point, he joked, that the coaches were pulling kids out of the band.

Morse's team, playing in a rugged large-school league, didn't score a single point all season. T.K. recalled the mitigating circumstances - the biggest offensive lineman was 180 pounds - but he also noted, with a touch of bemusement, that his brother threw roughly 36 interceptions in 10 games.

They went half the season without crossing midfield or collecting a first down. No wonder Morse preferred baseball.

"Michael had a good arm, but nobody could catch the ball," Crisson said. "It was probably the worst high school football team I've ever seen."

Giants players and coaches got a memorable preview of Morse's cartoon-character strength during their season-opening series in Phoenix - where Morse launched one batting-practice homer over the restaurant above the left-field seats at Chase Field.

Two months later, Pence and hitting coach Hensley Meulens still marveled at the feat.

"He destroys your ego by how far he hits the ball," Pence said.

Morse has the season's longest home runs at AT&T Park (449 feet on April 9) and Denver's Coors Field (458 on April 23), according to ESPN's home run tracker. And he rarely hits barely over-the-wall blasts: his 417.4-foot average is third in the majors (behind Giancarlo Stanton at 426 and Yasiel Puig at 418.2) among players with 10 or more homers.

Even with this Herculean power, Morse, 32, has had a mostly pedestrian career. He came up with the Mariners as a shortstop and quickly moved to the outfield. He's bounced around often, probably because of his defensive shortcomings and history of injuries.

The Giants knew all about these concerns but craved his power (highlighted by his 31 home runs for the Nationals in 2011). They signed him as a free agent in December and plopped him in the Pat Burrell spot, circa 2010 - a big bat stuffed in left field for six or seven innings and then replaced for defense. Morse, of course, moved to first base after Brandon Belt broke his thumb May 9.

Morse doesn't cover much ground in left, but the Giants will take their chances when Belt returns. Meulens compared Morse's opposite-field power to that of Danny Tartabull, who played with Meulens on the Yankees in 1992 and '93.

"If Mike keeps hitting home runs and driving in runs at this pace, we have no problem," Meulens said. "It's exactly what we needed."

At his current rate, Morse would become the first Giants player to hit 30 or more homers since Barry Bonds (45) in 2004.

Along the way, Morse's free-spirited personality plays well in the clubhouse. Among his notable quirks are carrying his bats in a portable humidor that was a gift from Ichiro Suzuki, his teammate in Seattle; buying Pence the menacing warrior helmet Russell Crowe wore in "Gladiator"; and using his coiling warm-up swing, which he dubbed the "Samurai Cobra Snake," in the on-deck circle.

Morse still takes his job seriously enough to work out with several NFL players, including 49ers running back Frank Gore, every offseason in Florida. But there's clearly no chance of Morse ever taking himself too seriously.

That's evident in the animated dugout celebrations he and his teammates perform after home runs.

"Mike keeps things loose," Pence said. "When everyone is having fun and laughing, I think that kind of atmosphere allows for people to succeed. He's a big part of that."

This fun-loving nature traces to Morse's relationship with his brother. T.K. said they still act like "two knuckleheads" when they get together, as if they're 12 and 9 again, goofing around and reciting lines from Chevy Chase movies.

Amid the laughter, Morse saves a soft spot for his onetime partner in games of catch. Mom jump-started his journey, from Florida to Jamaica to San Francisco, and for that he's forever grateful.

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